Santa was Gooooooood.

It's all over.  Christmas is done, and all our visits are made.  All that's left is to enjoy our time off and prepare for our New Years Eve shindig. 

This time last year I was horizontal with a sinus infection and some H1N3-type virus that, I swear, nearly killed me and literally banned all fun from my Christmas holiday.  This, therefore, is the Mister and my first "vertical" Christmas married and living together, (although I do have a cold coming on...).  And I have to say...Santa was good. 

Christmas morning we settled in for present opening with our tea and biscuits as is our custom. 

Next we all opened our stockings.  Tonka's presents all go in his stocking as it becomes increasingly difficult to explain to a small dog why it is alright to rip apart paper on Christmas but it is expressly forbidden the other 364 days of the year.  Clearly he enjoyed his gift from his grandparents.  He alternated between playing excitedly with it and falling fast asleep - the poor little guy's not used to this much excitement!

Next I have to start by saying that the thing about a good marriage, if I can be so bold as to claim ownership of one of these elusive things, is that your partner will learn as much as necessary about your dorky hobbies to completely surprise you with all the swag you never thought you'd get.  The thing about a GREAT marriage is that both partners do the same!  I managed to score major brownie points by plying my hubby with various pieces of gaming hardware for his PC as well as the new Zelda game for the Wii.  He scored possibly bigger brownie points when he bought me my very own 1.6 oz. Golding drop spindle as well as two bags of beautifully coloured roving to spin with!  He said, and I quote, "I got you purple because purple is your new pink."  Bless his cotton socks, eh? 

This is my new baby.  This photo is from the Golding website.

 

He also bought me Clean'n'Go M-O from the movie Wall-E.  M-O is essentially a clean freak who is perhaps a little neurotic about it.  Supposedly I may or may not share some of these characteristics and I happen to also love this little character, despite his small-ish role in the film.  My new toy M-O runs over crumbs and collects them up for you.  He is just little, so can only manage a post-dinner clean-up I should think, however I've not decided yet whether he is a "collector" toy or a "play with" toy and as such he is still bundled up in his box. 

I must have been a good girl this year, as I had a number of gifts which I LOVED!  I'm not going to list them all here, because that frankly seems tedious.  Rest assured though that they were all loved and received with much gratitude.  However, there is one more thing that I thought was pretty rad and just have to share with you.  My cousin in England (the one who had the baby) sent me this blog mug!  I felt like I should have my own talk-show!  How cool is that?  I love it.  Stay tuned, as there will soon be an interview from her to show you that good looks aren't all that run in this family!  (clearly, there's modesty too...hehe...)

I am lucky in many ways this holiday because I was able to spend the last three days hopping about from one branch of our family to another and being swept up in love, laughter and the spirit of the season.  Somehow, Mr. Frogged managed to get me to Serenity Knits in Newmarket yesterday for their boxing day sale (their sale is on all week if you need anything, I recommend it) and I bought... Baby Me Boo!  If I didn't already think it had the cutest name ever, it is also soft as soft can be.  It's a blend of baby alpaca, merino and bamboo and it's going to be a quick knit cowl for me.  Watching The Little Cowl Company knit up stock for the holidays has left me coveting a nice thick fluffy cowl.  What better way to indulge than at a Boxing Day Sale?  I also picked up a couple of skeins of Estelle yarns for gift knitting and some sock yarn for the Mister.  I'm feverishly working on his Mittens in order to allow me to cast on something new.  I will still finish that crocheted ripple blanket I swear...

Effective January 1 I am on a yarn diet.  No purchases until more of my stash diminishes.  I have begun a list of resolutions and I'll let you know the final cut once I decide.  I realize I'll break most of them, but if I only keep them for a month that's one month longer than I would have otherwise.  In the meantime, no new projects without a WIP off the needles first.  That ought to keep me in line...I think....

Until next time friends, Happy Crafting!

Not Ready Yet

Ok so here it goes... My pre-Christmas confession. We are T minus 6 days until the Claus takes to the skies. I still have over 10 gifts to buy, my holiday baking is not done, I haven't got the ingredients for the stuffing I promised to bring on the 25th, I don't know what I'm bringing on the 24th, the gifts I do have are not wrapped, my cards are not written and they shed glitter like a pole-dancer (or so I hear) and so cannot be written anywhere but MY home, the cards to be posted are not yet on their way and of course my crocheted gift is still mocking me in its incomplete state in my project bag. It makes me want to say something to it like, "I brought you into this world, half of a blanket, I can frog you out!" but then I'd be the crazy person talking to my yarn (again...).
To make matters worse my anxiety is flaring up (yes it does that, like a bad back or arthritis) which means I'm supposed to do a series of techniques to chill out...riiiiiight. Yes I can totally see how sitting back and taking stock will help me calm down here. Oh, brother.
Tell me it's not just me!
Happy crafting everyone and in case I don't post before it begins (on Wednesday, I think) Happy Chanukah, too!

One Week to Christmas!!!

It's one week to Christmas and it's not looking too good.
The gifts being made aren't ending up like they should.
Our knitter, alas, is starting to fade,
With scarce half her gifts blocked out and made.
Onwards she goes, not giving up yet.
"There's seven more days, I'll be done then I bet!"
Frantic and frazzled she knits on even quicker,
Her hook and her needles nothing more than a flicker. 
Her hubby looks on with tender care,
Trying not to show his look of despair.
But secretly he's shopped for all on their list,
In case his dear wife doesn't finish the gifts! 

Whoosh, boys and girls...looks like Santa's on his way soon.  Still no sign of my Nativity, but there you have it folks.  I'm not letting them get me down.  This weekend we put up some lights and things outside so that it didn't look like the Grinch had stolen Christmas.  I must say though that it did put me in rather an anti-Christmas funk for a while after the incident happened. 

Nevermind, no more of that.  I recently established that with Christmas so close, the baby blanket, though quite far along now, will not be complete in a week (short of my taking up a speed addiction which I'm really not prepared to finance).  So instead I decided to whip up a little crochet ear flap hat so that the little'un has something to open.  It is hellish cute, I must say, but I must have done something wrong in the back.  Perhaps the slip stitch join counts as a chain stitch or something like that because it seems to come down into a peak.  I'm not frogging it this time.  I figure it's for an infant who spends most of his time on his back anyways, so there you go.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 


I think tassles and poms are super cute!

No baby to model it, sorry...

This braid at up a stupid amount of yarn...FYI.

So it would appear that we are almost ready for the holidays, albeit we have over 15 gifts left to buy, but the stockings are hung, the tree is up, the lights are out and the spirit of the season is back so...there you have it. 

Today I'm going to spend the day baking and cooking because my uncle is in town from the UK and we are having him and my cousins and my parents over for dinner.  Brave, I know.  There will be 10 of us in all squished around my dining table, but I suspect we'll manage.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Keep up the great work on the presents I know you're crafting out there!  Have a great week and Happy Crafting!

Who Would Steal a Sign?

Four hours ago we duct taped a sign to the lamp post in our yard asking politely for the return of our Nativity. After spending the afternoon at a holiday party, we returned and it's gone. We put the sign up under the popular theory that perhaps the thief misunderstood our nativity placement. Since we put it only four feet from the curb, many people we spoke to felt that perhaps it was assumed to be garbage and taken innocently by someone rescuing it from the trash. I'm not sure what it means when the sign is taken. It is not that windy that it could have blown far and after looking down the street for the sign to no avail we assume it's been taken too. We aren't bad people, I swear, so why??
We are putting another sign up. Last ditch effort. This whole thing is making me suspicious of people and uneasy and I don't much like feeling this way. I'll keep you posted.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Two Weeks 'Till Christmas

Now, two weeks to Christmas,
Our knitter's uptight.
With a cramp in one hand
And a squint from bad light,
She keeps on with her craft
During each hour God sends
And denies to stop knitting
At parties with friends.
As cosmos, and chianties and h'ors deuvres abound
She vows, "I'll join in, I swear, just after this round."
Her needles are flying,
There's yarn in her clutch,
And even her hubby thinks,
"This is a bit much."
He sneakily lures her away with merino,
Then hands her a glass, quite full, with some vino.
He takes her out slowly to the mistletoe,
When sudenly she bursts out,
"I've got loose ends left to sew!"

Hello ladies and gents.  There is officially two weeks until Christmas now and in the spirit of Brenda Dayne I have delegated at least one of my Christmas crochet gifts to Festivus status.  The other one is close behind it, as there is no way I can possibly delegate enough time in the days left to crocheting when there is precious little time to do all of the other things left to do.

Today I spent the day with my mom, selecting fabrics and sitting on various sofas for the cottage.  Somehow this was a much less daunting task with my mommy there.  I think there are just some times where things are just like that.  We got much accomplished after going all over creation to find out that there may actually only be one sales person in the world out there who is still interested in actually assisting their customers.  Just sayin'....

Tomorrow is a Christmas party.  Weeknights will be spent alternatively crocheting and shopping, with one gym session thrown in (yes I said that casually like it was something I do all the time, and yes I'm completely full of it, because I haven't done much of anything since the charity ride).  Next weekend I'm throwing a dinner party for some family in town for the holidays and as you know, next it will be Christmas! 

Anyways, enough babble for tonight.  How are your projects going?  It's definitely way too late for me, and I'm off to bed.  I'll catch up with you soon...happy crafting!

Who Steals A Nativity???

I will try to keep this rant brief for fear of dampening the holiday mood. This year Mr. Frogged's uncle hand-made us a beautiful, white-painted, plywood, folding Nativity. He asked what sort of lawn ornament we might like and that was my only request because they are so hard to find.

We picked it up a week ago and set it out on our lawn Sunday morning. I have just come home, after having it out only three days, to find it missing.

Joseph and Mary stood about three feet each, and the manger was a scant twelve inches high. It wasn't something easily carted off by one person. For one thing it folded and fell undone easily when lifted and it was awkward to move. We walked some of the nearby park in hopes of recovering it from a teenager's prank. No luck. We looked around the street for signs of the wind having taken it away. Nothing. It's gone.
My heart is heavy with the idea that at this time of year, with many holidays, not just Christmas, coming to pass a person would be so cruel as to take someone's holiday decorations.

Granted, they likely did not know it was made for us by a family member and perhaps it was teenagers, but they had a good hiding place. I don't know.

What I do know is that this person has not only stolen an object from us but also my sense of community and security, which are much harder to replace.

**Edit added December 8, 2011**
After speaking to some of our neighbours the general suggestion/excuse for this behaviour is that we had placed the Nativity too close to the curb.  We had placed it in front of the lamp post that is so poorly placed as to be in the centre of our lawn.  In doing this, the Nativity was about 3-4 feet from the curb.  So, it is a possibility that this is some sort of misunderstanding.  We are going to post a sign on the lamp post asking for it back in the hopes that if this is the case the person will return it. 

Three Weeks 'Till Christmas

Now three weeks to Christmas that knitter got wary.
"These UFOs here," she thought, "Sure look scary."
But determined she was, so she knit all the quicker,
Clicking each stitch and each row on her clicker.
Slowly but surely some progress was made,
And some of her worries had started to fade.
But alas, though she knit and she counted with care,
a YO was lost 20 rows ago, there.
She shook her head, "No!", and squeezed out a small sob,
Then took a deep breath and she started to frog.

I hope your gift-making is going more smoothly than that. Mine is, but I hear that pride goeth before a fall, so let's not say it too loudly.

Today we were Christmified. First order of business was to get a 9'-0" tree into the back of a Prius. Ladies, and gents, I'm here to tell you that this can be done without so much as a bungee cord to help. See...

Hand holding was clearly forbidden on this car ride. Poor Mr Frogged is a saint for agreeing to drive under these conditions.

To ease our way into the decorating, we began with the smaller items and held off on the tree. The first thing we put out was the advent wreath we made last year from ribbons and sparkly bobbles. It's not at all traditional but we love it. I've shown a shot of it half-made too in case you need proof of its home creation. 

Half-way to Completion 2010

Complete and Set Out for Use 2011

Christmas-y Table Ready for Impromptu Guests

Here is a Swedish Christmas angel mobile set out in our stairwell:

Sweet and Simple

Then we began on the tree. Three hours, one Christmas special and one night-time drama later, and the tree (or, the top half of it) looked like this...

I've taken a few snaps of my favourite ornaments for you too.

Kissy-Fish, an Image from my Courtship with Mr. Frogged

A Honey-Dough Ornament from Croatia

Tinkerbell as Our Christmas Fairy - Disney Nuts that We are...

Our First Christmas Commemorative Ornament from Last Year

Have you started to holiday-ify for your celebration yet?  If you don't celebrate Christmas, let me know what you do celebrate and what sorts of decorations you use.  When do you usually begin your decorating? Leave me a comment and let me know. Until next time, happy gift-making, and happy crafting!

One Month Until Christmas

'Twas one month 'till Christmas throughout all the glitter
There existed at least one confident knitter.
Her projects were laid out with impeccable care
Just awaiting the knitting and crocheting flair.
There was a blanket for baby, some mitts for her man,
A scarf for dear dad and some socks for her nan.
A felt bone for rover and a mouse for the cat.
Some slippers for mom and that will be that.
With her cast-ons completed and her needles a-clickin',
The countdown was on. The clock, it ticking.

To be continued...

It's that time of year boys and girls, so stretch out your hands often and get going because we, the crafty, are playing the role of the elves!

Happy crafting. :)

Good-bye November

So, here we are again. On the bright side, November is finally on its way out the door. I don't know about where you are but here the weather hasn't been doing anything to further endear this month to me.  Dreary, drizzly rain all week, and more on the way. 

On another note, shortly after my last post the blocking of the blanket was finally complete and I gave it to its eagerly awaiting owner (who loved it). 

 

 

 

 

Up until this point I haven't formally reviewed any patterns or yarns I've used.  I think you and future me will definitely find it useful if I do.  The pattern is The Bobble Baby Blanket and is available as a paid pattern on Ravelry.  It is a well written PDF and is clearly illustrated with many photographs.  I would totally recommend the pattern.  That said, I found it slightly frustrating that the yarn requirements are listed in grams rather than yards.  My friend had already made this blanket in Cascade 220, so I did the logical thing and converted her yardage into my KnitPicks Swish DK, arriving with an order of 11 skeins in Sugar Plum.  I used 8 skeins and wound up with a blanket whose length spanned our double sized guest bed.  It's not the end of the world at all, but it is definitely surprising.  

Now onto the yarn.  Generally I liked the yarn - it was consistent.  There were no knots in it, and it was pretty soft, though not as soft as Cascade 220 superwash.  I washed it in Eucalan even though it is machine-washable, simply because I didn't want to mess it up before giving it to the new owner.  It smelled distinctly of wet sheep when I took it out of the laundry sink.  This is likely a good sign, one that means it actually came from a sheep, but it was a bit alarming to me, who had not yet washed a large project entirely made of wool.  The other thing I learned is that I hate that colourway.  I'm not sure if it was the colour itself or the lack of variegation in the yarn, but either way by the end I wanted nothing to do with Sugar Plum or anything resembling it.  It just seemed dead to me.  Once it was all washed and blocked and set aside and I was no longer forced to look at it, I liked it again.  Over all I would recommend this yarn to someone else, and I would knit with it again, but it would not be my first choice. 

Snapping me out of this colour funk is my latest love, as you know, my ripply blanket.  I am loving this project for all it's wacky colour changes, plus this yarn is soft, soft, soft!  The only problem I'm having so far with this is that I start getting a blister if I work too long on it.  Solution - alternate with knitting.  Hehehe.

 

And what am I knitting?  My UFO socks that have been shoved in my knitting bag begging for some love since well before I got married last June.  What can I say?  It turns out that I'm a fickle and unfaithful crafter.  But at least I always come back.  

 

November clearly wasn't all bad.  Mr. Frogged took me to my favourite Mexican restaurant, Dos Amigos, the other day, and allowed me to knit socks in public while drinking a lime margarita.  The food was great, the drink was great, the knitting got a little sketchy - I'm not gonna lie.  I don't think one is meant in any realm to turn a heel and consume alcohol.  It's just a thought.  But look how far I've gotten!  Erin from the Anatomy of Knitting Podcast is right.  No matter what happens, you always feel very clever after turning a heel.  I used some bastardized version of Wendy Johnson's Toe Up Socks With a Difference.I'm working with Shibui Knit Socks and I do like it very much.  It's boingy somehow and feels good on my foot (in my first pair of socks). I'm kinda champagne taste with a beer budget when it comes to sock yarns, so it's fortunate that I have small feet and that I like ankle socks so I get 2 pairs per skein. 

What I don't understand is how I ended up with this crazy hole in each corner?  Is it because I didn't wrap my stitches?  But the pattern stops wrapping after a certain point.  Is it because I didn't keep track of when to stop working across and occasionally knit right the way across?  I think that might cause this but any confirmations would be greatly appreciated.  Post me a comment to help solve this mystery. 

Lastly, I went to a thrum mitten class at Serenity Knits in Newmarket this weekend.  I cannot say enough good things about this store.  It's such a pleasant relief from the small, overfull stores you often find in The City.  It's roomy, but not overwhelming.  There is a lot of selection, and their yarns are clearly selected with care.  In case you don't know, thrums are essentially 4 inch bits of roving that are worked into stitches within a mitten, or hat, or sock to add a fleecey layer of warmth to the garment.  Traditionally, I learned from Beth who taught the class, they were used in Newfoundland and Labrador in unwashed wool providing the fishermen with warm and waterproof mittens.  Naturally I bought the materials for the class - Fleece Artist Thrummed mitten kit - Yum, and I am making this first pair for Mr. Frogged in a lovely green colour as you can see, and in a size large because he's got big hands and is obviously masochistic by requesting such a big mitten.  Can you see the cute little heart-shaped stitches that the thrums create?  I mean, very manly arrow shapes....

Naturally, to dispell mitten envy, and quite possibly theivery, I had to buy a kit for myself in this luscious red.  Please ignore my finger encroaching on the photo.  I'm posting unusually late tonight and promise I will get you better pictures of my mitt yarn soon.

 

There was a 10% off student discount at Serentiy, so I obviously bought something else too.  Oops...

It's not my fault.  Really it couldn't be helped.  First of all, it's the coolest sock yarn in the world because it's designed for two at a time socks and has been dyed two strands at a time, allowing me to make identical socks without having to curse out loud.  Second, it begged to be brought home with me and practically hopped in my knitting bag when I threatened not to succumb.  I had to buy it or risk the yarn framing me with shoplifting.  Tough decision, but someone's got to make it.  

Oh jeez, I'm getting a serious case of the head nods so I better go to bed.  Until next time, friends, Happy Crafting!

Not Off the Hook Yet

Look at me go! Two posts in one week, I must have my blogging mojo back.

First and foremost, I finished the bobble blanket! Yay! Well, ok let's be honest here. I finished CROCHETING the blanket, but it's still wet and blocking with a few...erm...loose ends.

Wanna see? I thought as much. Well...ok.




That's the blanket before being pinned. Imagine my horror when I realized that my chain edge was so tight that my beautiful bobbly blankie was all wibbly! However, after some creative fanangling it looked like this:




Much better!

When I began this blog, the intent was for it to be a knitting blog, but since then all I keep doing is crocheting blankets! The next one's on the hook. See?

It's my Ripple Blanket. I'm using a slightly (accidentally) modified version of the pattern Lucy gives here in her Attic24 blog. It's going pretty quickly and I like it so far.

I'm also going to be hooking something else but it's a Christmas gift and I can't say anything more because I'm not sure who actually reads this blog.

But can I be honest with you? I mean really honest? Shh...don't tell but I don't want to hook anymore. I want to knit. But I can't because I've been possessed by crocheted blanket-making. Possessed, I tell you.

I can't help but think that there are at least 17 different ways I'd rather be knitting right now or at least 17 different things. I mean seriously seventeen.

1) my unfinished vanilla socks;
2) my abandoned first ever sweater, which I believe to be in my house somewhere despite having not seen it since I moved after my wedding over a year ago;
3) my beautiful and neglected kid-silk mohair cowl (cowls are so in right now!);
4) my lonely fleece artist sweater kit, still tied up in it's bag;
5) Mister Frogged's self-patterning Regia yarn socks;
6) my self-patterning Regia yarn socks;
7) the red tam for Tasha;
8) the wedding blanket, which I cast on when I got engaged ... in 2007;
9) the cushion from my first skein of hand-spun;
10) a chunky cowl-y thing, from yarn not yet acquired;
11) a purple tam for me from my English souvenir merino yarn;
12) thrummed mittens!!  (the class is next Saturday...yaaaaaay!);
13) slippers - preferably felted clogs;
14) a little sweater for Tonka;
15) a Christmas Pickle;
16) a Clapotis, because everyone's done it but me;
and
17) a tea cosy, as a gift, with a union jack on it!

On second thoughts, that list is completely daunting...exhausting just reading it I think.  Maybe I'll keep hooking....just a little while longer. 

The Mean Reds

So here I am, after an embarrassingly long (and unplanned) hiatus, blogging again.  I meant to blog, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  You may remember from here that I hate November.  You might have thought I was being cute because it's cold and dreary, and really, no one likes this particular month, but I wasn't.  I've spent the past two weeks battling the most obscene case of the Breakfast-at-TIffany's-defined mean reds. 

"Listen...you know those days when you get the mean reds?" --Holly.
"The mean reds? You mean like the blues?" --Fred (Paul)
"No... the blues are because you're getting fat or because it's been raining too long. You're just sad, that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?" --Holly
"Sure." --Fred (Paul)
"When I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump into a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away." --Holly

Now, as you might well imagine I can't saunter around the nearest Tiffany's every November to make me feel better.  For one thing, it makes poor Mr. Frogged break into a nervous sweat this close to Christmas if he catches me too close to that turquoise-laden store.  What I can do, is wander around my stash.  And since I think I've teased you quite long enough, I think I'll finally share with you what the stash enhancement I mentioned here actually was. 

As a bit of background, a friend of mine was clearing out some things that she no longer had any use for and came across a stack of retro needlework magazines (knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, needlepoint, etc.) that were her mother's.  Knowing me to be, well, me, and therefore constantly with one eye on needlecrafts, she offered me this treasure trove of magazines from the 70's, 80's and 90's.  Naturally I jumped on it.  What I didn't expect when I received the magazines was the grocery bag full of crochet thread.  Now when I say full, I mean FULL of all different colours and weights from a time when each ball cost less than one dollar, but was of better quality than that which I recently paid five dollars for.  Imagine my glee!  Well, no, don't imagine it....live it with me for a moment while I show you through my new aquisitions. 

Two of this luscious creamscicle colour.

A beautiful beige grey linen colour.

A sunshine-y yellow.

Odds and ends of greens and browns, plus a lovely variegated blue.



Intense purple.  It is the new pink after all.

Bits and pieces of some VERY fine thread.

Fine white thread.  Doillies here I come...

My happy colours - Reds, yellows, oranges, and combinations thereof.

I should note that while I did not ever meet my friend's mom, one thing is clear from this grocery bag of thread.  She was a very talented crocheter, and with thread as thin as the thread below, she must have had an abundance of patience also.



I don't know what these were going to be, but I love how the colour changes look in this circle.



Each of the crocheted flowers that were added to this rick rack are no bigger than a dime.  The thread is so thin you could easily sew with it. 

Can you see how tiny these little wings are?  I LOVE them, and want to learn how to make them too. 



A sweet crocheted rose made up of scallop stitches. 

You can see I have some mighty big crocheted shoes to fill here with this thread, but I hope that I can learn from these things that were given to me, and honour the memory of such a talented crafter.  

On that note, here's hoping the mean reds clear up and I blog again soon.  I have a big FO unveiling for you and a new piece of hooky goodness to share too! 

Until next time, happy crafting!

Perspective...

Last night when I went to bed I couldn't sleep. 12am rolled around, 1am swiftly followed and so on. I woke up this morning not rested at all and in a foul mood.

I was grumpy with my husband, I was grumpy with the dog, I was grumpy with myself. We left the house late. Got caught in the line up at Tim Horton's where I ordered a steeped tea and a coffee but received two coffees instead. Didn't figure out this until 5km later. I don't like coffee. Made Mr. Frogged wind my yarn into a ball while I drove. Was grumpy with him for dropping it on the floor. Was grumpy with the other drivers for being stupider than usual. The Mister finished winding. Was grumpy because there was a knot in the yarn. He gave me his coffee which has more sugar. I was grumpy with the coffee for having grinds at the bottom. Got to work and I was grumpy because the dog ate my Chatelaine magazine during our car ride.

Texted my brother and cousin to find out if they got their Kris Kringle email yet. I was grumpy when they didn't reply quick enough.

I got a text from my cousin. A friend of his is very ill so he wants to donate his Kris Kringle gift to his friend to help make ends meet. What a beautiful and inspirational thought to go into the coming season with.

Felt ashamed for being grumpy all morning. By comparison my day is perfection. That'll learn me. HE certainly does work in mysterious ways.

Perspective. Gets me every time.

Hope your all having a lovely Friday and that nothing makes you grumpy today.

Happy crafting, friends.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kickin' the Habit

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. ~Mark Twain

This weekend I was kickin' the habit. I had all the usual symptoms. I ate more. I became emotional at the commercials. I even acted irrationally once or twice. But really? Do you blame me? I abstained from the Creativ Festival.

It's not that I didn't have offers. Oh, I had offers. I coulda gone, like, ten times over. But, psh, I looked those people in the eye and said, man, I'm way too cool for that.

Actually, I had more like one offer and I rather sheepishly declined it after a long and serious, not to mention a bit guilt-ridden glance at my stash. I realized that there was nothing at the festival I needed and that I had over 10 projects waiting for me in yarn form in my stash. So, I didn't go like a good girl.

So, what did I do instead? I threw a high tea for my girlfriends! Yay!!





The tea entailed homemade scones, homemade Victoria sponge, finger sandwiches, and mimosas all round. Not to mention tea and lots of it! It was fabulous. In fact, I can't wait to do it again!





On Sunday I also made dinner for my parents. For dinner I decided to honour the other half of my heritage by making bracciole in homemade tomato sauce with rigatoni (yum). AND my dad liked it! This is big news as my dad can tell you to the milligram what is missing from a recipe. He's usually right, to boot. Yet still, victory was mine! Hahaha.

So with all of this grocery shopping, baking, entertaining, and cooking I barely had time to think of needlework, nevermind the ginormous festival wreaking havoc on the craft community of downtown Toronto.

I do, however have a couple of confessions to make...
1) I have a huge stash enhancement that I haven't mentioned to you yet,
2) It was free, and
3) I'm not going to tell you any more about it yet. Sorry guys!

Lastly, I've decided on the costume...Betty Page. The Notorious Betty Page. A bit scandalous, yes, but I'll be tasteful, I promise. And Mr. Frogged? Well, he'll be the photographer of course. Don't hold your breath for pictures on this one, though. I'm not brazen enough to post a swimsuit picture to the web.

Tell me what your Halloween plans are!

Until next time, happy crafting!

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